Education's the cure, says new health chief

Posted: Thursday, November 04, 2010

By Lee Shearer

Workers in the state Division of Public Health will focus on prevention and education to cure the state's serious public health problems, the new director of the state Division of Public Health said Wednesday.

"Behaviors are absolutely critical to our success," said Rony Francois, named in January to head the state agency.

Georgia faces serious problems with high teen pregnancy rates, infant mortality, smoking-related disease and high childhood obesity rates, Francois said in a presentation at the Georgia Center for Continuing Education.

Only 10 states have a higher birth rate among girls age 15 to 19, said Francois, delivering UGA's annual Bernard Ramsey lecture, named for a UGA graduate who donated more than $33 million to the university.

And public health workers in Georgia also face other challenges, such as low morale, an aging workforce and declining state support, he said.

The division's budget is about $592 million, most - about $432 million - from the federal government. The state portion totals about $149 million.

"The state funds are the ones that have been cut over the past several years," Francois said.

But relatively small investments can pay off big in the long run - for example, by promoting breastfeeding, Francois said.

Georgia women are less likely than women in most states to breastfeed their babies.

"We certainly could use some change in the climate around how we promote breastfeeding," he said.

Encouraging breastfeeding is one of the public health division's initiatives this year, he said.

But promoting breastfeeding is only one of many new initiatives for the public health division, said Francois, who described some of the division's wide-ranging responsibilities.

Among other duties, the public health division is responsible for inspecting restaurants for food safety, keeping vital records such as birth certificates, assuring indoor air quality, overseeing emergency preparedness and disease surveillance, he said.

The division has also started initiatives to encourage colleges, hospitals and public schools in Georgia to ban on-campus smoking, he said.

Only 66 of Georgia's 181 school districts have a campus smoking ban, he said.